Translations
This is just a few commonly used musical terms translated into technical terms or specific Massive Passive techniques. Note that these are fairly loose descriptions and definitions. Your mileage may vary.
Bottom, Fat | the deep lows |
| for more: bell boost below 100Hz or use any low shelf up to even 330Hz. When you use a shelf |
| this high, you should experiment with the bandwidth control. One should be extra careful pushing |
| deep lows if one can't really hear them on 6 or 8 inch woofers. |
Tubby | probably too much lows.Try removing somewhere between 82 to 220. |
Sibilance | between 5kHz and 8kHz for men & between 6kHz and 10kHz for women |
| for less: Bell cut at these freqs or Shelf boost with mid to narrow bandwidth freqs from 4700 to |
| 27K to get more air and |
| depends on the singer or source. The typical problem either is a gap in the singer's teeth (that a little |
| chewing gum or wax in the gap may help) or HF distortion typical in many mics and low budget |
| gear. It is better to cure the problem at the source rather than later resort to yet more EQ and de- |
| essers. |
Nasal, Squawk | corresponds to too much mids. A Bell cut between 820 and 1500 should help. |
Honk | much like "nasal" but probably a little lower. Probably between 400 and 800. |
Muddy | usually corresponds to too much low mids and not enough highs. First try bell dipping 220 Hz to |
| 440 Hz. Sometimes high pass filtering some tracks helps but do it carefully. |
Presence, Edge | usually upper mids, ie 2200 to 4700 |
| for more: try a gentle bell boost at 3300 to start. Better yet move the mic closer and use Omni. |
Air | the extreme highs like 16kHz or 27kHz. With this EQ you can also try any of the shelves above |
| 6800 adjusting bandwidth control and/or try the 4 highest frequencies, especially with "Bell 2". |
| Some years "that airy sound" is in fashion, some years it isn't. Extreme "Air" is cool in a lot of |
| freestyle sports but in audio it often runs the risk of "painfully bright", or "screaming highs". |
Telephone Sound | First try deep shelf cuts using the two bands set approximately for 470 and 3900. Experiment with |
| the bandwidths and frequency selects. Try mixing in some distortion |
Attack | usually the upper mids but depends on the instrument. For example on drums and bass for more |
| attack try boosting 2200 Hz, for piano try 4700 or 5600. Limiters usually remove some of these transient |
| heavy areas and may seem to dull the attack. The cure for that is longer "attack times" on the limiter. |
Thump | corresponds to the deep lows like between 33 and 68. Try the Shelfs first ! |
Warmth | many vague meanings depending on who said it and in regards to what instrument. You can try adding |
| low mids anywhere below 330 (try 250) or removing the extreme highs (try cutting 16K and 27K filters). |
| Lately some people mean the sound is too clean or "digital". You can use a combination of shelf boost |
| and shelf cut on the two lowest bands to drive the EQ section hard then restore it to reasonable levels and |
| flatness. You can also try hitting the EQ with a boosted signal and turning the return point down. The |
| usual culprit is too many cold crispy synths and samplers and you likely can't change that decision easily. |
Pop | with vocals usually means the excessive "P"s and "B"s when the singer is |
| First try a "popper stopper" or pencil in front of the mic and/or try swivelling the mic so that it points to |
| the singers shoulder and maybe use the High Pass filter on the mic or mic pre. With snares it can mean the |
| fundamental anywhere from 330 to 1200 Hz depending on the drum. |
"FM DJ" | Lots o' lows and highs. Try dipping mids first. The trick is to start with a real DJ and use a little EQ. |
"Old British" | Clear some muddiness by removing some 220 to 470 and boost a bit of presence around 2200 to |
| 4700. An alternative technique is boosting the "defining character" or "note" of each instrument which |
| entirely depends on the instruments. Best to do it without "solo's" and in the mix. |
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